Opt. Express 23, 4563–4572 (2015)

The realization of high-energy, sub-cycle waveforms for potential applications such as arbitrary waveform generation and quantum control requires a laser with a stable carrier-envelope-phase (CEP). However, there is a trade-off between the pulse energy and the CEP stability. Benjamin Langdon and co-workers from the USA and Germany have now reported a CEP-stable terawatt Ti:Sapphire laser. The system consists of a pumped Ti:Sapphire oscillator that feeds a chirped pulse amplification scheme consisting of two amplification stages. The CEP noise at the output was measured by an f–2f interferometer that was also used to drive an error signal for feedback correction. As the CEP noise mainly originates from the pulse stretcher and compressor used within the amplification scheme, they were mounted on special floated platforms to reduce vibration. Using this mounting method, mechanical vibration and CEP noise was significantly attenuated. The result was a 0.77 TW (20 mJ pulse energy, 26 fs pulse duration, 1 kHz repetition rate) laser with a CEP stability of 300 mrad over 9 hours. This laser was also used to pump a white-light-seeded optical parametric amplifier. Due to the preservation of the CEP stability in the white-light generated signal and the passive CEP stability in the idler, this laser system promises synthesized laser pulses spanning multi-octaves of bandwidth at an unprecedented energy scale.